Gearing My MagDK

ThumbtackJake

I'm just looking for feedback on where to go from what I've thrown together since hitting 50 recently on this guy.

5x Silks of the Sun (chest, belt, boots, gloves, pants)
5x Julianos (Ring, Ring, Necklace, Staff)
2x Vicious Death (Head, Shoulders) - Just grabbed it for the 124 spell damage until I could get my DPS high enough to start vets and get a decent monster set

Should I try switching one of the sets out to BSW? Not really 100% on where to go from here.

MashmalloMan

I really like Elf Bane on both bars, but I really only use my MagDK for vet dungeons, easier rotation and more sustain. I love the idea of +2 seconds on my abilities but there is probably stronger setups. This is just an alt, coming from stamina toons.

2x zann for single target higher dps/ 2x grothdar for aoe trash (elf bane effects both of these monster sets)
5x Elf Bane (Heavy chest/legs + arcane jewelery = transmuted)
5x BSW or Siroria (Boots, belt and gloves + Fire Destruction staff front bar)
1x VMA Fire Staff back bar.

BSW has a seemingly impossible drop rate to obtain a destro fire staff. Might just craft julianos until I actually get 1 lol.

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO

I (and almost everyone else) would recommend going BSW over either silks or Juli (the jury is permanently out on which set is better). I run silks with BSW and skoria on my mDK for PvE, all divines, gold infused weapons, flame damage front bar and weapon/spell damage back bar.

Elf bane is good if you're relying on zaan for your damage, but overall, there are better options. Elf bane doesn't boost most of your DK toolkit, so you're better off with silks/juli/mother's sorrow.

Either way, the differences in gear are going to make little difference as long as you know your rotation and how to get the most out of it. You'll be fine in most endgame PvE content with any combination of those sets, so long as you know what you're doing.

For PvP, I run shacklebreaker, torug's pact, and skoria. Hits pretty hard and gives plenty of stamina, which is vital in PvP.

ThumbtackJake

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO wrote: »

I (and almost everyone else) would recommend going BSW over either silks or Juli (the jury is permanently out on which set is better). I run silks with BSW and skoria on my mDK for PvE, all divines, gold infused weapons, flame damage front bar and weapon/spell damage back bar.

Elf bane is good if you're relying on zaan for your damage, but overall, there are better options. Elf bane doesn't boost most of your DK toolkit, so you're better off with silks/juli/mother's sorrow.

Either way, the differences in gear are going to make little difference as long as you know your rotation and how to get the most out of it. You'll be fine in most endgame PvE content with any combination of those sets, so long as you know what you're doing.

For PvP, I run shacklebreaker, torug's pact, and skoria. Hits pretty hard and gives plenty of stamina, which is vital in PvP.

I tried to get my Skoria piece today since the pledge is CoA2, but after two hours and multiple tank and healers quitting I just quit out myself, I figured it was me. We made it to Valkyn, but no dice. Figured either my gear was bad or I wasnt doing something right with my skills (which is pretty much a copy of Alcasts magDK build).

Does it matter what pieces are what? Can I have 5x BSW body pieces then rings/neck/wep Silks?

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO

ThumbtackJake wrote: »

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO wrote: »

I (and almost everyone else) would recommend going BSW over either silks or Juli (the jury is permanently out on which set is better). I run silks with BSW and skoria on my mDK for PvE, all divines, gold infused weapons, flame damage front bar and weapon/spell damage back bar.

Elf bane is good if you're relying on zaan for your damage, but overall, there are better options. Elf bane doesn't boost most of your DK toolkit, so you're better off with silks/juli/mother's sorrow.

Either way, the differences in gear are going to make little difference as long as you know your rotation and how to get the most out of it. You'll be fine in most endgame PvE content with any combination of those sets, so long as you know what you're doing.

For PvP, I run shacklebreaker, torug's pact, and skoria. Hits pretty hard and gives plenty of stamina, which is vital in PvP.

I tried to get my Skoria piece today since the pledge is CoA2, but after two hours and multiple tank and healers quitting I just quit out myself, I figured it was me. We made it to Valkyn, but no dice. Figured either my gear was bad or I wasnt doing something right with my skills (which is pretty much a copy of Alcasts magDK build).

Does it matter what pieces are what? Can I have 5x BSW body pieces then rings/neck/wep Silks?

It doesn't matter which pieces are which gear, it's all the same. You just want to make sure your traits are divines on everything (you can also run infused on the big pieces like chest, legs, helm) but divines with thief mundus is going to do the most DPS for you. If you can't get Skoria, grothdarr is a really good alternative, and so is zaan. Otherwise make sure your rotation is solid, should be keeping the dots applied and light attacking between skills for extra DPS (it may not seem like much, but with infused inferno staves and flame enchants, it really adds up).

Rotation as a general rule for mDK is:

eruption -> rearming trap (extra crit damage) -> flames of oblivion -> fire blockade -> bar swap
engulfing flames -> burning embers -> whip x5 -> bar swap
fire blockade -> bar swap
whip x2 -> bar swap
repeat ad infinium until boss is dead

Use spell power potions and keep elemental drain on your bar for bonus inferno staff damage, and cast it as needed for sustain, but in a group you shouldn't need it for major breech since a tank will be providing that.

Narvuntien

I use Burning Spellweave, Silks of the sun and Grothdar.

Before I got the money for the Silks of the sun staves I was using Julianos the DPS was pretty similar.

I need to get 1 more pc of Siriora before I can switch to that. But it will have to be Siriora and Sun instead of BSW just because BSW or Siriora inferno staves are really hard to get.

Grothdar monster set isn't that hard to get, I know Zaan is supposedly better but its way way harder even Vulkan Skoria is a lot harder than Grothdar.

md3788

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO wrote: »

I (and almost everyone else) would recommend going BSW over either silks or Juli (the jury is permanently out on which set is better). I run silks with BSW and skoria on my mDK for PvE, all divines, gold infused weapons, flame damage front bar and weapon/spell damage back bar.

Elf bane is good if you're relying on zaan for your damage, but overall, there are better options. Elf bane doesn't boost most of your DK toolkit, so you're better off with silks/juli/mother's sorrow.

Either way, the differences in gear are going to make little difference as long as you know your rotation and how to get the most out of it. You'll be fine in most endgame PvE content with any combination of those sets, so long as you know what you're doing.

For PvP, I run shacklebreaker, torug's pact, and skoria. Hits pretty hard and gives plenty of stamina, which is vital in PvP.

Your enchants are reversed.

md3788

Pretty much what everyone said. You can swap Julianos out for BSW but you have a decent set up and should be pulling enough DPS to clear some vet dungeons such as COA II. Just make sure all the traits and enchants are right. Divines with max mag enchant. Arcane on the jewelry with spell damage (or 1 mag recovery 2 spell damage). Withcmothers potent brew food (this is very important for sustain).

If you decide on BSW, farm COA I. The most challanging piece to obtain will be a fire staff, so you can run double silks inferno staves for the time being or just stick with silks/julianos. You do not want to front bar Julianos or silks with a vMA inferno back bar. So if you have a vMA backbar you need a BSW front bar.

For Monster sets, I recommend grothdarr for now. Eventually you will want Skoria for single target fights. If you are struggling with COA II you will have a hell of a time getting a Zaan from vSCP. But you will get there, keep practicing your rotation.

If you are on PC-NA I can help you out with your build.

Haquor

Thestephenmcraeub17_ESO wrote: »

Elf bane doesn't boost most of your DK toolkit, so you're better off with silks/juli/mother's sorrow.
/quote]

Engulfing flames, burning embers, eruption, standard, zaan, blockade of fire? Extends the duration of all. Which means more whips before dot recasting. Its not just about making each skill hit harder.

After extensive testing id recommend the following two setups:

2x zaan, 5x elfbane (jewellery, chest, legs), 5x BSW (3x body and flame staff) , VMA flame backbat or second BSW staff in meantime.

Or

5x BSW, 5x Sun, 2x valkyn 1x vma

I pull best dps with the top setup. But closely followed by second. And the second has lots of health and is more bursty which is handy in solo content.

md3788

IMO Elf Bane is a lot of work for little reward. First, it's a PvP set so you need to either buy it or grind PvP. Second, you need to transmute 3 pieces of jewelry (150 transmute stones). Third, you can't run 6/1/1 since it's a heavy set unless you get an inferno staff versus body pieces. Even then, you need two inferno staves so you don't lose your 2 second buff each time you bar swap which makes running it front bar with a vMA back bar out of the question. Elf Bane really only shines with Zaan since it increases the duration for 2 seconds and Zaan's damage increases each tick.

MashmalloMan

md3788 wrote: »

IMO Elf Bane is a lot of work for little reward. First, it's a PvP set so you need to either buy it or grind PvP. Second, you need to transmute 3 pieces of jewelry (150 transmute stones). Third, you can't run 6/1/1 since it's a heavy set unless you get an inferno staff versus body pieces. Even then, you need two inferno staves so you don't lose your 2 second buff each time you bar swap which makes running it front bar with a vMA back bar out of the question. Elf Bane really only shines with Zaan since it increases the duration for 2 seconds and Zaan's damage increases each tick.

Elf Bane is dirt cheap for divines chest/legs/purple jewelery.

Don't need to transmute all 3 if you are using witchmothers potent brew. Doing 1 at a time or having 2 transmuted vs all 3 is fine. The extra hp especially after future shield changes is nice and you will be low with that buff drink.

5/2 has less max stats, but same hp and more defence, pretty nice for shield changes coming too. I'll give you this 1 if your looking for max dps.

Zaan does carry the set, I find it fun with Grothdar too, it buffs standard of might and destro ult and makes your rotation more manageable. It is not weak but it is not BiS either.

I think there should be more interesting sets like elf bane in the game.

ThumbtackJake

I just wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and feedback.

I've been running CoA1/2 and got a few pieces of BSW now which gives me 5x Silks and 5x BSW. Still using a Julianos staff for now until I get both monster set pieces, then I'll swap out for Sun Staff. I did run Vet Vaults of Madness and got the Grothdarr mask. Gonna try to get some keys and pray for the shoulders now. I'm pulling ~15k sngle target DPS now, sometimes more sometimes less. No idea if that's decent enough but vet vaults seemed pretty easy. Haven't got divines on everything either, but I can research that and then transmute, right?

EDIT: Just did vet CoH1 and vet DSC1 for the pledges, pulled Grothdarr shoulders out of chest. Got 5x BSW 5x Silks 2 Grothdarr. I need a second Silks staff for back bar. This is hands down the most I've put into a character, pretty psyched.

IZZEFlameLash

Elf Bane is not a great set for PvE DPS unless you want your Zaan proc to last longer which is really the only use for the set. You will get more out of Sun and BSW than Elf Bane without Zaan. Or meta build of Mother's Sorrow and Siroria. If Elf Bane did something like increasing the fire DoT damage every 2 seconds or something, then it might be useful. Duration increase on non-Zaan build is not that significant increase in DPS if it improves the DPS at all. The only other use I can think of is to give yourself a room for mistake with increased DoT durations.

md3788

ThumbtackJake wrote: »

I just wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and feedback.

I've been running CoA1/2 and got a few pieces of BSW now which gives me 5x Silks and 5x BSW. Still using a Julianos staff for now until I get both monster set pieces, then I'll swap out for Sun Staff. I did run Vet Vaults of Madness and got the Grothdarr mask. Gonna try to get some keys and pray for the shoulders now. I'm pulling ~15k sngle target DPS now, sometimes more sometimes less. No idea if that's decent enough but vet vaults seemed pretty easy. Haven't got divines on everything either, but I can research that and then transmute, right?

EDIT: Just did vet CoH1 and vet DSC1 for the pledges, pulled Grothdarr shoulders out of chest. Got 5x BSW 5x Silks 2 Grothdarr. I need a second Silks staff for back bar. This is hands down the most I've put into a character, pretty psyched.

I just did a test with my MagDk 2x grothdarr 5x BSW 5xSun. I pulled 30k on a 3 mil dummy with not buffs except elemental drain. Only one gold weapon and both have terrible traits. Also a few body pieces aren’t in divines. So you can definitely hit harder than 15k with some practice

ThumbtackJake

md3788 wrote: »

ThumbtackJake wrote: »

I just wanted to thank everyone for the thoughts and feedback.

I've been running CoA1/2 and got a few pieces of BSW now which gives me 5x Silks and 5x BSW. Still using a Julianos staff for now until I get both monster set pieces, then I'll swap out for Sun Staff. I did run Vet Vaults of Madness and got the Grothdarr mask. Gonna try to get some keys and pray for the shoulders now. I'm pulling ~15k sngle target DPS now, sometimes more sometimes less. No idea if that's decent enough but vet vaults seemed pretty easy. Haven't got divines on everything either, but I can research that and then transmute, right?

EDIT: Just did vet CoH1 and vet DSC1 for the pledges, pulled Grothdarr shoulders out of chest. Got 5x BSW 5x Silks 2 Grothdarr. I need a second Silks staff for back bar. This is hands down the most I've put into a character, pretty psyched.

I just did a test with my MagDk 2x grothdarr 5x BSW 5xSun. I pulled 30k on a 3 mil dummy with not buffs except elemental drain. Only one gold weapon and both have terrible traits. Also a few body pieces aren’t in divines. So you can definitely hit harder than 15k with some practice

Should I be running out of magicka after a few rotations? I have 34k max magicka, and 1103 recovery. I just tried it again on a 3mil dummy and managed to hit 18k but soon after ran out of magicka. I'm using Witch Mothers Potent Brew and Essence of Magicka Potions (should be using the spell damage pots, right?).

EDIT: Switched potions and still having issues with magicka. My CP is only 260 so perhaps thats the issue, not enough points into regen or something. I have Divines on 3 pieces now as well. Managed to hit 20k and some change but ran out of magicka with pot on CD.

Haquor

Confirm you have elemental drain running and also 3 points in medicinal use in alchemy tree?

sedi

So I have a DarkElf MagDK cp515 with 5 Silks 5 BSW (got the inferno staff luckily) and 2 Grothdaar or Skoria (all divines thief Mundas) but I struggle to break 20k dps. I also don’t have the MA staff yet so use Willpower inferno and my weapons are gold. Is this mainly a rotation issue (I know the timings can be difficult to perfect) or am I missing something?. I use the skills and rotation from Alcast Valakas guide. Also what should my other staff be while I attempt MA?

md3788

sedi wrote: »

So I have a DarkElf MagDK cp515 with 5 Silks 5 BSW (got the inferno staff luckily) and 2 Grothdaar or Skoria (all divines thief Mundas) but I struggle to break 20k dps. I also don’t have the MA staff yet so use Willpower inferno and my weapons are gold. Is this mainly a rotation issue (I know the timings can be difficult to perfect) or am I missing something?. I use the skills and rotation from Alcast Valakas guide. Also what should my other staff be while I attempt MA?

@sedi Yes this is a rotation issue. I break 30k with the same exact setup without using proper traits on my weapons and only one gold weapon. Back bar I use Julianos just because it has a Crit 2 piece bonus but it doesn’t matter much. I wouldn’t use alcasts rotation as his is optimized for elf bane which makes his DoTs 2 seconds longer so he is doing more whips.

Edit: you also have more CP than me so you can hit 30k no problem. I would just ensure you have all gold magicka enchants and at least 2 gold spell damage glyphs on your jewels. Then work on a rotation

sedi

Thanks @md3788 so I need to drop some whips and rotate as someone suggested earlier in this thread. I have all gold enchants and spell damage as you said. Also will my cp affect this dps a lot as I have 200+ to go?

md3788

@sedi shouldn’t. I’m only 460 and I get 30k plus. 34k with siroria BSW & Zaan on a 6mil dummy. Also remember to use elemental drain if you are parsing a dummy and use spell power potions. Check that you have the medicinal use passives in alchemy as well

sedi

Thanks @md3788 I haven’t been using Elemental Drain but I have been using the sp potions and medicinal use. Didnt think to take out Harness Magika for the dummy as I wanted it to be what I use in vet dungeons. I suppose it’s a test of what I would get buffed though yes? How much dps will that help with?

HarpaxPT

Bsw, sororia and zaan and I can self buff 47k. Bsw fire staff front bar vma fire back

md3788

sedi wrote: »

Thanks @md3788 I haven’t been using Elemental Drain but I have been using the sp potions and medicinal use. Didnt think to take out Harness Magika for the dummy as I wanted it to be what I use in vet dungeons. I suppose it’s a test of what I would get buffed though yes? How much dps will that help with?

@sedi exactly. Elemental drain will make a big difference and should be readily available in dungeons so you should use it on your parse

sedi

Thanks @md3788 I will give it a try later

sedi

Ok @md3788 so I switched to ele drain and am seeing slight improvements but not much. Any advice for rotations? How often do you weave heavy in? I feel my rotation is ok so really don’t understand how I’m 10-15k off what you guys get. Sorry for all the questions.

HarpaxPT

Really good videos on youtube

sedi

I’ve watched so many but can’t see what I’m doing wrong. My rotation looks similar but I know animation cancelling can help and I’m wondering if light/heavy attacks is where I’m losing damage.

HarpaxPT

Sedi u on ps4 NA? If so message me

sedi

EU

md3788

@sedi I heavy attack once or twice during a 3 mil parse. I usually replace one or two whips with a heavy attack when my Magicka is getting towards the 10k mark. Never wait until you are out of Magicka to heavy attack, try to be proactive so all your dots stay up as its better to miss a whip or two that to screw up your dots. light attack before every single skill. This is imperitive. My rotation is as follows:

> will equal light attack

Beginning fight Pre-buff: Ele drain, Potion

Rotation:

Flames of Oblivion, Rearming trap, Standard of might > Eruption > Blockade
//Bar swap//
> Burning embers > Engulfing flames > Molten whip > Molten whip > Molten whip > Molten whip > Molten whip
//Bar swap//
> Blockade
//Bar swap//
> Burning embers > Engulfing flames > Molten whip > Molten whip > elemental drain
// Bar swap//
REPEAT from beginning

Pop potions as their ready and drop standard of might when ready. Also, you may only be able to get 4 whips in before you need to reapply blockade.

My rotation is also not the best as I don't keep rearming trap and flames of oblivion up 100%

md3788

HarpaxPT wrote: »

Bsw, sororia and zaan and I can self buff 47k. Bsw fire staff front bar vma fire back

@HarpaxPT I have the same set up minus the vMA back bar. Curious to what your rotation is.